Informatics Standard Terminology

ACR Common is a collection of common radiology terms and semantic structures that facilitate interaction with ACR products and services. ACR Common leverages existing ontologies and coding schemes such as RadLex Playbook, SNOWMED, CPT, and ICD9+, and is organized around fundamental and derived axes such as scenario, procedure, and finding.

Most importantly, ACR Common is based on the ACR’s experiences and challenges interacting with facilities to deliver and consume content (e.g. registries, guidelines) and participate in key programs (e.g., ACR Select, Accreditation).

ACR Common is not designed to replace existing ontologies. Rather, the goal is to organize access to content in a pragmatic and production-ready manner that allows members and industry partners to participate immediately in key programs.

Do I have to pay for Common?

No. ACR Common is a community resource; there is no fee for usage.

Will ACR Common replace or compete with existing taxonomies such as Radlex?

No. ACR Common will link where possible and appropriate to existing terminologies. However, it will evolve continuously to meet market demand, maintaining linkages to existing terminologies where possible and informing those efforts along the way.

What’s the difference between RSNA RADLEX Playbook and the ACR Common Procedure dimension?

By design, they are close with the intention of maintaining a crosswalk for those standardizing on Playbook terminology. However, because ACR Common is tied heavily to heterogeneous production systems and dynamic products and services, it will continue to evolve at a rate that will exceed the processes employed by consensus-driven standards bodies. That community standards process is a long-run necessity but typically a short-run challenge.

In the case of Playbook, the procedure axis of ACR Common fills the immediate market gap for those not standardized on Playbook and can serve to inform the evolution of Playbook over time so that effort continues to evolve to meet market demand.

This iterative development process is a reflection of market reality and the balance between solving immediate production problems while charting a long-run path for the industry. Similar coordination will occur along the other axes of Common with other consensus-driven standards bodies.

Because we map to Playbook, organizations that adopt Playbook as their charge master will not have to do any additional mappings to consume ACR Common-enabled products and services.